“Absolutely. I think Lilyburgers has real potential. I understand you’re having some minor cashflow problems right now, and you have other expenses you need to deal with…”

  George said all this, and laced his fingers on his belly as he leaned back in his chair and looked at the little businesswoman in front of him, sipping on her lemonade through a straw.

  “The question is, how much of your business are you willing to give up?”

  Lily continued sipping.

  She had talked about this with the ghosts!

  It would be better to avoid giving up too much of the business.

  She didn’t want to give up too much profits.

  On the other hand, she did need cash right away. Not just for this month’s debt payments, and not just for this Lilyburgers location.

  She needed to set up more locations, too!

  With this second location in the village, the market would probably be saturated. There was no point in opening another Lilyburgers anywhere else in the village, since it wouldn’t draw in more customers.

  At best, if they got too busy, they could move into a larger space, but still in the city square.

  Lily set her lemonade down.

  “I’d like to sell five percent of the the business… Just for the City Square Location.”

  “Hrmm…”

  The mayor leaned back and thought.

  They had talked in depth, and while the cart had more sales data, the City Square Location was going to have a larger potential customer base…

  He and Lily had agreed that gross profit of three thousand per month was reasonable, times twelve to make annual earnings of thirty-six thousand, and times a multiplier of three…

  Three was a low multiplier!

  But…

  They had to lowball it.

  Because it was a new business, and there wasn’t any hard data to make a better estimate!

  It was better to make a low estimate, to avoid making a loss on his investment!

  Besides which, he had Lily over a barrel.

  She needed money, badly, right now.

  If she didn’t, she wouldn’t even have considered selling part of the business.

  And if she had more time, she could have simply saved up from her earnings at the cart by the mine.

  This was a tremendous opportunity for the mayor!

  Still, there was a problem…

  And that was his own cash on hand.

  He only had so much money in his bank account that he could spend!

  Taking out a loan to make an investment was a pretty bad idea.

  If Lilyburgers failed, he’d still owe money on the loan! It would be like two losses, instead of just one.

  So, doing the math in his head, they were roughly agreed on a business valuation estimate of one hundred and eight thousand dollars.

  Five percent of that was five thousand, four hundred dollars.

  In exchange, he’d be a part owner of the business, and would get an estimated monthly earning of one hundred and fifty dollars. And he’d make his money back in thirty-six months, or three years.

  That was if everything worked out as planned.

  If the business failed, he’d lose his money.

  If the business took off and was wildly successful, he’d make his money back even faster.

  And his own cash on hand…

  Was only four thousand dollars.

  The mayor…

  Took a sip of his own lemonade.

  Lily took another sip too.

  She was nervous!

  This was her first real business negotiation!

  Her ghosts, Rich, Mac, and Ray were all there behind her, but she was the one who had to do all the talking!

  The biggest thing on her mind was the amount of money.

  Five thousand dollars!

  That was so much money!

  Five hundred days’ worth of chores, all at once!

  “Lily…”

  Lily gulped!

  The mayor leaned forward, a serious look in his eye.

  Even more serious than when he had been lining up a tricky shot in their golf game!

  “I’m flattered that you would trust five percent of your business to me…”

  Lily’s eyes widened.

  “But…”

  And her heart sank.

  “I don’t have five thousand dollars on hand.”

  Oh no!

  Lily’s shoulders trembled.

  She had forgotten that five thousand dollars wasn’t an amount most people would have just lying around!

  Even Mr. Richman, the richest man in their village.

  At least, that Lily knew!

  Lily…

  Took another sip of her lemonade, and calmed herself. She said a silent prayer to the God of Business, asking for his help!

  And then, the words came to her.

  “So, how much of Lilyburgers City Square Location are you willing to buy?” she asked.

  She…

  Was letting the mayor take his turn!

  Just like in golf, they took turns, based on who was closest to the hole!

  The ghosts had told Lily all the numbers, and she knew how much she needed to pay.

  It was a lot!

  But none of that mattered right now!

  Right now, what mattered was how much the mayor was willing to spend!

  Everything else would depend on that!

  “You can’t count your chickens before they hatch…” Mac muttered, behind her.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lily stayed focused, watching the mayor’s face.

  The mayor opened his mouth.

  “I’d like to buy five percent of Lilyburgers City Square Location… for four thousand dollars.”

  The ghosts gasped behind Lily.

  A lowball offer!

  A super low lowball offer!

  The business valuation was already low! It was a very careful low estimate!

  But the ghosts knew!

  They knew how much people would like fast food once it was available!

  It was going to be huge!

  The ghosts were outraged!

  The all started talking at once behind Lily!

  But…

  Lily did the math in her head.

  Lily was a good-at-math girl!

  Four thousand would cover the rent she needed to pay, and leave her with about two and a half thousand dollars left over.

  In the three weeks remaining in this month, Lilyburgers City Square Location would probably make about two-thousand, six hundred dollars after the mayor’s cut of five percent.

  Plus another one thousand, two hundred dollars from the cart by the mine.

  2500

  2600

  1200

  --------

  6300

  Six thousand, three hundred dollars.

  And she would owe four thousand, six hundred dollars at the end of the month, for her home’s rent and her parents’ bills.

  She was going to lose some of the mayor’s investment money paying off debt, most likely.

  So she still needed to open a few more locations.

  But…

  But…!

  This would work!

  Lily…

  Wasn’t afraid of getting lowballed!

  If the mayor didn’t have enough money…

  That was okay!

  Lily’s ego…

  Had nothing to do with this!

  The only thing on Lily’s mind at this moment was taking care of her parents!

  And so…

  She said another silent prayer, thanking the God of Business, and the God of Golf as well!

  She had been super lucky to meet the mayor today!

  She prayed to the God of Death, too, to thank him for sending her the ghosts!

  And the God of Animals for sending Mr. Cat!

  Lily prayed a lot, really quickly!

  Lily was a good-at-praying girl!

  All this took place in just a few seconds, as the mayor and the little businesswoman looked at each other.

  And then…

  Lily…

  Stood up out of her chair!

  She could either walk away, or…

  ??━━━━━━(???)━━━━━━!

  She extended her hand to the mayor!

  She reached out for a handshake!

  The business world’s sacred handshake of agreement!

  “You’ve got a deal, George!” Lily declared with a smile.

  Behind her, the ghosts were still upset.

  They knew just how valuable each of those percents were!

  They were thinking about the long term…

  But so was Lily!

  She had to overcome the short term, her payments due at the end of the month, to make it to the long term!

  She wouldn’t have sold fifty percent of her business to the mayor for four thousand dollars.

  She needed to make money, fast!

  And she couldn’t do that if she was giving away half her earnings!

  She had to strike a balance!

  The four thousand dollars today was worth more than a few more percents later!

  Lily and the mayor shook hands, and then they went back to the bank, arriving right as Gertrude’s lunchbreak ended.

  “Gertrude, we need to draw up a contract! Lily has an account with the bank already, yes? We’ll be doing a transfer, as well.”

  Gertrude sighed.

  The mayor was like this a lot.

  He’d ditch work to go play golf, and then come back with more work for her to do…

  Gertrude still didn’t understand business golf!

  But that was okay, because Gertrude was an amazing secretary and clerk!

  She was the beating heart of the town hall!

  She whipped up a contract super fast!

  Lily and her ghosts read over it carefully, and then Lily and the mayor both signed!

  And the mayor…

  Pulled a little trick!

  He was well-liked by the God of Tricks and Trials, as it turned out!

  But, it wasn’t a trick on Lily!

  See, Lily already had negotiated to pay her rents at the end of the month.

  And the mayor…

  Had just completely drained his bank account!

  Four thousand dollars was all his money!

  His wife was going to be so mad!

  He hadn’t talked to her about it at all!

  But…

  This was the trick!

  He was going to pay Lily’s rent, out of the money he invested!

  And that money wasn’t due until the end of the month.

  So he only had to transfer two-thousand, four hundred and twenty-five dollars to Lily’s account right now.

  And Lily could spend that money however she liked, without having to worry about the rent for her new location!

  At the end of the month, or more exactly, on the first day of the next month, the mayor would pay the rest of the money…

  On the same day that he got paid for being the mayor, and his other investments!

  Still…

  The mayor prayed!

  He prayed to the God and Goddess of Marriage!

  So that his wife wouldn’t check the bank balance until next month!

  The Goddess of Marriage up in heaven shook her head, looking down at the mayor.

  “Oh George,” she said, “You still should have talked to your wife, first.”

  Still, she blessed him a little all the same, as did the Gods of Golf and Business.

  Things…

  Would work out for the mayor!

  He was a good-at-seizing-opportunities guy!

  And in truth, he would become extraordinarily wealthy in the future…

  At least for Three Creeks Village.

  Eventually, his wife would forgive him!

  And so, with the contract signed and all the business at the town hall done, Lily went home and had a late lunch!

  And who was there, but Mr. Cat!

  “You’re late, Lily! You missed lunchtime! I’m starving, I’m wasting away! Mew, mew, mew!”

  Mr. Cat was, to be clear, not starving nor was he ‘wasting away.’

  He was getting downright pudgy from all the table scraps and french fries Lily had been feeding him!

  “Oh no!” Lily cried.

  She didn’t want Mr. Cat to starve!

  “Mama!” she cried.

  Her Mama came out from Papa’s room.

  “Oh, you’re finally back, Lily. Ready for lunch?”

  “Yeah! And we need extra for Mr. Cat!”

  “Oh no we don’t.”

  Lily’s Mama narrowed her eyes and glared at the cat!

  “Mew!” he said, shamelessly!

  “I already gave him some lunch! He’s been napping around the house waiting for you to come back. He can eat again at dinner time, or go hunt his own food!”

  “Mew! Meow, meow!”

  Mr. Cat protested vehemently!

  Lily’s Mama made her lunch, and took some time to teach her about taking care of pets!

  Mr. Cat argued the entire time!

  He was still claiming he wasn’t Lily’s pet!

  But when Lily’s Mama talked about making a bed for him in Lily’s room, boy, he sure had a lot of opinions about the bed!

  Mr. Cat wasn’t entirely honest with his feelings.

  Some cats are just like that!

  After lunch, Lily and her ghosts went around town, putting in the orders to set up Lilyburgers City Square Location.

  She had to order the griddle, and the fryers, a bigger refrigerator, and the rest of what she would need…

  Like cups!

  The miners had their own cups, but she couldn’t expect her customers in the city square to be carrying their own cups!

  She got it all ordered, and the smith said he could drop it off at their store tomorrow afternoon…

  He was really fast!

  What a great smith!

  Lily also put in her orders for ingredients, as well.

  The stalls were closed, but she could leave a little note that the butcher, the baker, and the market sellers would see so they could set aside what she needed!

  That night, she went to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, after saying all her prayers thanking the Gods and Goddesses for their help that day.

  She had done a lot!

  And tomorrow…

  Job interviews!

  Mr. Cat…

  Was curled up, asleep in the bed Lily and her Mama had made him.

  And the mayor…

  Well, his wife had heard about what the mayor had done.

  Her gossip network was a force to be reckoned with!

  She would have to see about these Lilyburgers herself…